More than 830 financial institutions have filed paperwork with the US government acknowledging their relationships with licensed cannabis businesses, according to quarterly data from the US Treasury Department.
That figure is a slight uptick over last year’s totals and is nearly twice the number of banks and credit unions that reported partnering with the cannabis industry in 2018.
However, fewer than ten percent of all financial institutions nationwide are currently provide services to state-licensed cannabis businesses.
Federal law discourages banks and other institutions from maintaining relationships with cannabis businesses because marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I controlled substance. On seven occasions, members of the US House of Representatives have passed legislation to explicitly permit banks and other institutions to engage in relationships with marijuana businesses without running afoul of federal law. However, Senate leadership has never advanced this language to the floor for consideration.
According to survey data compiled by Whitney Economics, over 70 percent of participating cannabis businesses say that the “lack of access to banking or investment capital” is their top challenge.
NORML has repeatedly called upon Congress to amend federal banking legislation, opining: “No industry can operate safely, transparently or effectively without access to banks or other financial institutions, and it is self-evident that the players in this industry (smaller and minority-owned businesses in particular), and those consumers that are served by it, will remain severely hampered without better access to credit and financing.”
Additional information on the SAFER Banking Act is available from NORML’s Take Action Center.